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Meet Gavin Andresen, The Most Powerful Person In The World Of Bitcoin | Mit Technology Review

A group of five core developers emerged, with Andresen as the most senior. Only they had the power to change the code behind Bitcoin and merge in proposals from other volunteers. That gave them unique power over the currencys basic operation and economic parameters. While the price of Bitcoin soared over the years, Andresen and the other core developers toiled to improve the software that made it all possible. They fixed security bugs that had permitted digital heists, made the software less prone to crashes, and spruced up the interface to make it easier to use. That was no small task because what Nakamoto had left was not the kind of software you would hope to build a product on, let alone an economy, says Mike Hearn, an ex-Google software engineer who has contributed code to the project. He released Bitcoin to prove his ideas would work, Hearn says.

It also announced a system that accepts virtual currency complaints . Though virtual currencies have become increasingly integrated into society, with states , companies , political organizations and even schools approving their use, the Internal Revenue Service has not granted it legal tender status in any U.S. jurisdiction.

When Payment Processing Becomes A Commodity | TechCrunch

Thats sizable. The bear case in all of this is that, perhaps, bitcoins price sags, interest declines, and instead of becoming a new form of money, bitcoin slowly devolves into obscurity. BitPay, among others, doesnt expect that to happen. Founded 2011 Overview BitPay is the leading payment service provider (PSP) specializing in the peer-to-peer virtual currency Bitcoin which provides for instantaneous transactions from anywhere in the world with no risk of fraud or chargebacks.

The Government Tries to Explain Bitcoin to Normal People – TIME

The advisory also cautions consumers that digital currencies can experience huge price fluctuations due to speculation and the lack of regulation. Bitcoins price has fallen by as much as 80 percent in a single day. Consumers who use or invest in virtual currencies are stepping into the Wild West, the bureaus director, Richard Cordray, said in a statement. Virtual currencies may have potential benefits, but consumers need to be cautious and they need to be asking the right questions, Cordray said. In addition to issuing the advisory, the bureau announced Monday that it will start collecting consumers complaints about virtual currencies on its website, http://www.consumerfinance.gov. An official with the trade group Bitcoin Foundation shrugged off the advisory as standard practice.

BitPay Staffs Up In San Francisco With Visa, PayPal Alums

With the rise of mobile wallets, peer-to-peer payment, micro lending and various personal finance tools, the banking industry faces a new breed of competitors from the technology industry. Notable examples include eBay which has been in the payment space for a long time with PayPal, and is now strengthening its foothold in mobile payment by integrating Apples fingerprint reader into PayPal. Google has tried entering the payment space with the discontinued Google Checkout and Google Wallet. Amazon is targeting the mobile payment space through acquisition of GoPago , as well as challenging Square with a planned launch of a similar payment processing solution . Facebook, on the other hand, is targeting the $500+ billion global remittance market .

4 Risks Bitcoin Must Overcome – Yahoo Finance

However think about AOL, Netscape, BlackBerry and MySpace — all these companies dominated their space and then quickly ceded their dominance. The same risk exists for bitcoin. If a better digital currency was created and bitcoin couldn’t compete, there is the possibility that a newcomer could overtake bitcoins lead. Related Link: Why Bitcoin’s Growth Should Explode Technical Risk There also exists the possibility that technical reasons will hinder bitcoin. This risk, however, seems the most unlikely. Researchers, hackers and security experts have been searching for security flaws since 2009 and have come up empty. The challenge for bitcoin developers is to ensure bitcoin scales at a global usage.